Also have made bottle-conditioned (aka naturally fermented) ginger beer. My advice: use plastic bottles. They have a tendency to explode and exploding plastic is much more safe than exploding glass. Learned that the hard way.

Taste is 100% spot on with St. Elizabeth allspice dram, but texture is more watery and less thick. I have a second batch going now that I'm going to play with different ratios of syrup for texture. Wi update if it works.

Edit: sorry for typos, on phone.

Forgot to add basic guidelines:
When making liqueurs, no need for premium alcohols. But don't use rotgut either. I typically go for the "call" level of base spirits.
Also, during any maceration or steeping, give the bottle at least one good shake a day.

That allspice sounds great; I'll probably put some down in the next few weeks. Grab some Bittercube bitters (get the six pack) and play with them. They are potent so use with care! We have some orangecello macerating right now in Tito's vodka (stuff is cheap enough to use for this). I have one empty cask right now that I'm doing a cleansing soak with and then plan to put in either an American rye manhattan or a Sazerac; have not made up my mind yet. Currently have a 3 litre cask of manhattans with Wisers, Noilly Prat (my current favorite vermouth), a little Maraschino, and the last of my VTR bitters. It's drinking perfect.

I had meant to try making bitters over the Xmas break but never got around to it. It would have interrupted my eating and drinking.

I fully endorse the citrus press v. the citrus juicer -- the press extracts oils from the skin and gets them into your cocktail. This makes a HUGE difference in cocktail quality.

Anyway, my very few additions to my bar hardware from my Tokyo trip. Really, Japan blows everyone else away for the quality and variety of their cocktail gear. A walk down the Kappabashi-dori (the restaurant supply street, near Asakusa) reveals a number of stores with cocktail gear. Everyone has great stuff, saw some vintage gear and tons of new stuff -- Yarai mixing glasses are not at all uncommon, and the quality of glasses in which you get cocktails is really high. I was trying to keep my spend down, so I didn't get a lot of stuff -- a few cocktail glasses, a mixing glass, and a spoon:

Has someone of you tried to "age"/"improve" white spirits (rum) with wood chips?

No but read about it. Apparently there is something called an "oak spiral," or something similar, that is superior to chips. You have to buy chips that have been toasted and it seems they are inferior to this spiral device as the wood is often a bit inferior. That said I have bought 8 oz of French oak, medium toast chips to stick inside my first cask as I've used it several times. I figure the cask should balance out the chips. I'll let you know in several weeks.

The bitters are not officially completed but just added a couple eye droppers to a drink. Wow. Very nice. Aromatic, spicy, tasty. I have not added a bittering component yet and have some wormwood I plan to use for that.